lettering, illustration & design

I collaborated with designer and fellow calligrapher, Alicia Marquez to create a fun chalk art piece for Chalk Howard Street this summer. We both love the style of sign-painting done in Buenos Aires, Argentina, called fileteado porteño, and it inspired our design and colors.

Working in 94ºF weather, we spent 4 hours drawing on the asphalt street. It was our first time with this medium and we love the results. Hard work, and so temporary, even the wind would blow the chalk away. It all disappeared when rain came later in the day.

It is a great honor to represent Illinois in the Her Flag public art project! Last week I traveled to our state capitol, Springfield, to celebrate Illinois ratifying the 19th amendment to the Constitution. By August of 1920, the required 36 states ratified the 19th amendment, recognizing women's suffrage rights, making it official!

To gain the right to vote without the power of the vote, sounds like an impossible task. These powerful, unbelievably determined women seem like superheroes to me. They risked their safety, overcame enormous obstacles, and refused to be silenced. It was no small task to change the minds of an entire nation.

My color palette is clearly inspired by Wonder Woman, and the graphics are energetic, bold and loud. The suffragettes were no shrinking violets, and I wanted to represent how outspoken these women were in my design. I included a bugle as a call to arms, to assemble troops; the energy bolts for the power these women needed to muster; and the ripples emanating from the figures to show the impact that these leaders had.

Marilyn Artus, project creator, is traveling the nation leading up to the national anniversary, and met me at the Springfield Art Association Collective gallery to sew my stripe on to the flag. Illiinois ratified right after Wisconsin (depending on who you ask), so you can see both stripes in the photo above (the Wisconsin artist is Jenie Gao). Then Marilyn traveled on to Michigan to add the third of the 36 stripes on the Capitol steps. It's going to be HUGE when it's done. Follow along with this traveling, year-long project by signing up for the newsletter at HerFlag.com.

Michigan artist Ann Lewis and project creator Marilyn Artus shown presenting the work in progress on the capitol steps (still from Facebook Live stream).